9 to 5


Musical Theatre West has another major hit on its hands with the stage adaptation of the 1980 movie smash 9 To 5, the tantalizing tale of a trio of resourceful secretaries who put their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss in his place while serving up a heaping helping of Dolly Parton songs along the way.

Ashley Moniz stars as Judy Bernly, who having recently divorced her philandering (and appropriately named) husband Dick (Chris Tuck), now finds herself joining the corporate work force for the first time in her life.

Daebreon Poiema is veteran secretary Violet Newstead, currently raising teenage son Josh (Brandon Dubuisson) as a single mother while seeing man after man get promoted executive positions that ought by rights to be hers.

Madison Claire Parks completes the overworked and underpaid secretarial trio as Dolly stand-in Doralee Rhodes, rumored to be canoodling with Consolidated Industries president Franklin Hart Jr. (Edward Staudenmayer) while in fact remaining faithfully married to Dwayne (Kurt Kemper).

And Judy, Violet, and Doralee aren’t the only employees beleaguered by Hart’s dictatorial reign over the secretarial pool.

Maria (Isabella De Souza Moore) is about to be fired simply for asking a co-worker her salary, Margaret (Amelia Prochaska) arrives tipsy at 9:00 and goes home drunk as a skunk at 5:00, and Kathy (Nikki Elena Spies) gets her kicks spreading office gossip.

Decidedly not an ally of her fellow females at Consolidated is Hart’s bulldog of an administrative assistant Roz (Chelle Denton), who nurses an impossible crush on her boss, no matter that he’s married to Missy (Missy Marion) and probably sleeping with Doralee.

And so things go until the fateful day that Judy accidentally puts rat poison in Hart’s coffee in place of sugar, and in so doing finds herself faced with the possibility of jail time unless…

Book writer Patricia Resnick wisely sticks closely to the movie original’s plot, and with Parton herself serving as songwriter, the result is a bright and bouncy journey back in time to a not-so-long-ago era when a male boss (they were all male back then) could call his secretary a “girl” (there being no such thing as a female “office manager” in those bygone days) and get away with it.

As she did this past October with MTW’s Damn Yankees, Cynthia Ferrer assumes directorial reins of a show in which she has previously starred, and her onstage experience once again yields one splendid performance after another, particularly the three-dimensional star turns delivered by her trio of leading ladies.

Moniz transitions fabulously from caterpillar to butterfly as housewife-turned-office worker Judy while revealing pipes to do the role’s Broadway originator Stephanie J. Block proud, and never more so than in the eleventh-hour showstopper “Get Out And Stay Out.”

The never-less-than-dazzling Poiema reinvents Violet as a strong, independent woman of color while showing off leggy dance moves opposite a bevy of male hoofers in Vi’s big fantasy number “One Of The Boys.”

As for blonde-bombshell Doralee, Dolly has met her match in the luminescent Parks, who not only shows off country girl smarts in “Backwoods Barbie” and “Cowgirl’s Revenge” but does so in a Nashville twang to equal the glorious legit soprano that previous roles have showcased.

Staudenmayer plays Franklin Hart Jr. with such unrestrained glee, he’s the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot you simply love to hate, and an incognito Denton steals every scene she’s in as the lovestruck Roz, whose powerhouse “Heart to Hart” has her sharing the stage with a half-dozen Sexy Dream Rozes in matching red business suits and dos.

Cameo roles provide terrific talent showcases for Prochaska as office lush Margaret, Marion as Hart’s long-suffering wife, Kemper as Doralee’s devoted hubby, Spies as pert office girl Kathy, Moore as Latin lovely Maria, Keith A. Bearden as Vi’s besotted younger suitor Joe, Dubuisson as spunky teen Josh, Bullard as the unjustly promoted Bob Enright, Tuck as Judy’s scumbag ex, and Michael Cavinder as deus ex machina CEO Mr. Tinsworthy, all of whom join Josh Alvarez, Leo Ayala, Erin Dubreuil, Edgar Lopez, and assistant choreographer Marissa Ruth Mayer in 9 to 5’s triple-threat-tastic ensemble.

The busty Queen Of Country Pop herself even shows up on screen to open and close the show.

Alexis Carra Girbés demonstrates choreographic gifts galore in multiple dance genres while seamlessly linking scenes with even more dance moves, and music director Wilkie Ferguson III not only conduct’s MTW’s Broadway-caliber orchestra, he elicits pitch perfect harmonies so complex, they’re instantly recognizable as Stephen Oremus’s vocal arrangements by anyone who knows his work.

Production design kudos are shared by Robert A. Kovach (sets), Shannon Smith-Regnier (costumes), Jenna de Jesus (wigs), Paul Black (lighting), Andrew Nagy (projections), and Julie Ferrin (sound). (Sets, costumes, and projections are rentals.)

Vernon Willet is stage manager and Erin Nicole Eggers is assistant stage manager. Kevin Clowes is technical director. Steve Calzaretta is production manager. Bren Thor is associate producer.

It’s been ten long years since 9 to 5 received its last major LA/OC staging (the one Ferrer starred in), and the #metoo movement has made this salute to women in the workplace all the more relevant in 2023 than it was when Jane, Lilly, and Dolly shared the screen back in 1980.

It’s a joy to report that 9 to 5 scores 10 over 10 at Musical Theatre West.

Musical Theatre West, Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach.
www.musical.org

–Steven Stanley
February 11, 2023
Photo: Caught In The Moment Photography

 

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